In a world increasingly dominated by generative A.I. tools, questions arise about the nature of human connection and shared experiences when much of the content we consume--from text to images to music--is not 'real'. Do the fictional narratives that generated images provoke inspire new interpretations of a context or mislead us into believing biased perspectives? Do rewritten summaries of text make it easier for us to gain more knowledge or do they exclude valuable nuances that lead us to deeper wisdom? Through the use of creative computation, visual design and writing, my current research explores these questions to consider how the power of generative AI to reinterpret content can be leveraged to build more inspired, divergent dialogs and empathetic, shared connections.
Read my research statement here.
Papers in Conference Proceedings
Mothersill, P., and Bove, M. V. (2019) Design Daydreams: Juxtaposing Digital and Physical Inspiration. In Companion Publication of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2019 Companion (DIS ‘19 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 265–269.
Mothersill, P., and Bove, M. V. (2019) Beyond Average Tools. On the use of ‘dumb’ computation and purposeful ambiguity to enhance the creative process. The Design Journal, 22:sup1, 1147-1161
Mothersill, P., and Bove, V. (2018) An Ontology of Computational Tools for Design Activities. In Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland.
Mothersill, P. (2018) Editorial: Tools of Design. In Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland.
Mothersill, P., and Bove, M. V. (2017) Humans, Machines and the Design Process. Exploring the Role of Computation in the Early Phases of Creation. The Design Journal, 20:sup1, S3899-S3913.
Mothersill, P., and Bove, M. V. (2015) The EmotiveModeler: An Emotive Form Design CAD Tool. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ‘15). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 339–342.
Perovich. L., Mothersill, P., and Broutin Farah, J., (2014) Awakened apparel: embedded soft actuators for expressive fashion and functional garments. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI ‘14). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 77–80.
Cranor, D., and Mothersill, P. (2011) Prototype hacking: succinct physical communication for design and business. In Procedings of the Second Conference on Creativity and Innovation in Design (DESIRE ‘11). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 363–364.
Academic Dissertations
Towards Digital Liminality: Computational tools for ‘beyond average’ creative thinking | 2019
Philippa Mothersill. Doctoral dissertation, MIT Media Lab
Advisors: Tod Machover, Daniel Cardoso Llach, Maria Yang
The Form of Emotive Design | 2014
Philippa Mothersill. Masters dissertation, MIT Media Lab
Advisors: V. Michael Bove, Neri Oxman, Katherine Isbister, Henry Holtzman
Spectate | 2009
Philippa Mothersill. Masters dissertation, Royal College of Art & Imperial College, London
Advisors: Tom Barker, Miles Pennington, Clare Brass
Articles
Mothersill, P (2024) The Balance Between Automation and Agency. In The Breath of the Doing a Media Evolution’s Collaborative Foresight exploration into the Futures of Digital Work
Mothersill, P. and Faulks, K., (2022) Welcome to the Metaverse. Ipsos Views
Mothersill, P. (2018) Inviting Feedback. Journal of Design and Science.
Mothersill, P., and Bove, M. V. (2015) EmotiveModeler. interactions 22, 6 (Nov - Dec 2015), 14–15.
In the News
“MIT researcher blends engineering and art in speech” (Feb 2018) The Huntingdon News.
“How chance and nonsense can help the creative process of designers” (Sept 2017) Nexo.
“In A Creative Rut? Try MIT’s Mad Libs For Designers” (Sept 2017) Fast Co Design.
“Education and Design” (July 2017) Capitel Magazine by Universidad Humanitas Mexico.
“SXSW: When Combining AI and Design, Computers Need To Get Moody” (Mar 2017) Art&Seek.
Program Committees
Royal Society for Arts (RSA) Ambassador (2019-2020)
Representative for the Boston chapter of the RSA, an active community of problem solvers that aims to tackle big social and technological issues through virtual salons, online thematic networks and coalitions for change.
Festival of Learning conference co-chair, MIT Media Lab (Jan 2019)
Co-chaired the rejuvenation of the Festival of Learning, a day-long Media Lab community-created event that
enabled students, staff, and faculty to connect and learn from each other outside of their daily academic interactions.
Tools of Design track chair, Design Research Society conference (2018)
Reviewed papers, selected reviewers and organized authors to present academic research related to design tools
Biotech and Art panel co-chair, MIT Hacking Arts festival (2016)
Co-led the search and organization of a panel around bio-tech and art for Hacking Arts, a festival that brought artists, engineers, and entrepreneurs together to ignite cross-disciplinary innovation at MIT.
Award selection committee, Center for the Arts at MIT (2015-2019)
Student representative on the CAST visiting artist selection committee that funded dozens of faculty arts projects and brought world-renowned artists such as musicican Jacob Collier and artist Carston Höller to the MIT campus.